I WANT YOUR WORDS!

The Unexpected Side-Effect of Creating My Blog

I just read a post about Naomi and Logan battling for the Goblet at the Genesis Fencing Club. That’s so damn ridiculous. I don’t know anything about fencing. I hadn’t planned on a fencing education.

I have as much time for reading about fencing as I have for bronchitis.

I’ve been at this blogging thing for two weeks or so now. I didn’t get into this willingly. Long story made short: I did it because the publishing industry tells me I have to do it. Am I really writing about this again? I’m still trying to polish my manuscript and then begin my second novel. With my job(s), my family, my hobbies, my whatever, I don’t have time for a blog. Besides, who’ll read it? What will I write about? You get it.

Alright, I’ll write occasionally on this “WordPress” thing.

Woah, there’s a lot of people writing on this “WordPress” thing. I don’t have time to read what anyone else is writing. Too bad for all of them.

Hey look, some guy wrote a poem about aluminum siding. Hang on, I’m gonna get me a cold pop.

I get lost in topics like icebergs, iceberg lettuce, heat waves, and riding waves. I’m fascinated by someone’s passion for table tennis and someone else’s lack of passion for passion. I blushed at an excerpt from an erotic novel.

I read about “MAN STUFF,” like monster trucks and football. I read about “WOMAN STUFF,” like doilies, and Longaberger Baskets.

I’ve been misty and angry about lost loves, cancer, rejection, betrayal, rape, and attempted murder. I’ve been amazed by the resilience of people who have survived the most dreadful events possible and yet can still see the good in God, the world, and their fellow-man.

I’ve read posts about diapers and menstrual cycles, my brain absorbing each one like a….

Sweet Brown! Did I really almost make that joke?

I’ve spent more time reading YOUR blogs, my fellow bloggers, than I’ve spent in working, writing, editing, eating, and driving in this past week. Yesterday, someone accused me of “spam liking” posts. Is that really a thing? Spam liking? I promise: If I liked your post, I read your post. I may not have understood it, but I read it. I am guilty, however, of “following” more bloggers than I could ever legitimately follow. Need a follower? Just cough. I’ll probably jump and click it.

I’ve read spectacularly worded posts about the most boring, trivial things. I’ve read posts in need of spell-checks and major grammatical overhauls that tell the most fantastic stories.

I stopped reading books when I started reading your posts. Last year, I read 108 books. I was in the middle of “Intelligence,” by Susan Hasler, when WordPress kidnapped me. I’m wondering now if I’ll ever get back to it. Right now, I don’t give a shit. No offense to Ms. Hasler. I was enjoying her book. If she’d share chapters of it in a blog I’d be sure to read them.

When I’m not reading blogs, I’m thinking of tags to enter, such as “leotards” and “Casper Weinberger,” just to see what pops up.

God, help me. This is addictive.

Alright! Everybody stop writing for the next four years or so. That’ll give me time to catch up.

You too – I started just recently and I swear I’ve spent more time at other site than my own – it’s hilarious, heartbreaking and at times just downright weird but I just can’t stop. Just started reading a new book that I have been waiting nearly six months to be released but guess what here I am commenting on your comment about spending too much time blogging – hmm problem there hmpf well don’t care I’ll get back to the book later since I can speed read an’ all. Catch you around and I’m sure we’ll E-meet again.

I love the sense of humor you’ve added in this post! But yea, blogging no matter which platform used, is becoming a bit addictive. You may have explained this, so forgive my asking, but what is ‘spam liking’?
Thanks for reading my blog post and for * liking “An Open Thank You Letter To….”

I’m not entirely sure what “spam liking” is, but I have a tendency to enter a tag and then read every post in that genre from the last few hours, “liking” most of them. My favorite tags to search are “writing,” “gratitude,” and “confidence.” I think that my accuser must have seen that I had liked a number of consecutive posts within a topic.

What they said! I really love this post because you are speaking to a fellow WP addict. Sadly, I spent five months limiting my time on it, my blog, my writing, reading for fun, etc as I worked on a certification for my day job. But I am back now and will be adding your blog to my regular stops.

Having noted in above comment that you search “confidence” frequently, I suppose that clarifies how you found me today. You sir, are quite witty. I would humbly request that you overlook my grammatical errors, they are intentional! I write as I speak and this Southern girl is pretty lax with the uppity talk. Welcome to blogging…may your pigs have many litters.

I don’t know why, but I actually read this post! I usually just recipri-Like (I don’t consider it spamming) posts of people who like mine. On rare occasions I will read them, as long as they’re . . . not long. I know what you mean, bro. The Zemanta thing sets me off on tangents, then half the day is gone. And, I used to think Facebook was a big time-sink! You a funny dude, Eric. Keep up the good work. — YUR

Very funny! I’ve only dipped my toe in as regards reading the blogs of others. So far I’ve liked what I’ve seen but don’t really know how to search for what interests me, apart from just searching tags.

I think spam-liking, is clicking a post for the sake of it to get others to return the favour. That’s not me, if I like a post or someone likes mine, I will definitely read a couple of entries to make sure they’re genuine, and if I feel they only did it to gain a like or follow, then I simply move on.
Hope that clarifies the spam-liking conundrum (don’t quote me on it, though). 😉

Very funny, but true. I agree with the “like” part. If I open up a blog from my email notification, it’s because something grabbed me, and I read it. If I really “liked” the post, I’ll comment, just as I’m doing here. But really I need to be editing my manuscript.

Great job on the blog. Like most commenting here I can definitely relate to your subject. I think I’m just getting on the roller coaster of addiction -you know where I’m willing to let the kids burn the house down to read just one more post. Its nice to see someone who liked my post be someone similar to me. Often I’ll view a blog that’s about professional blogging and I know they followed or liked mine just to suck me into theirs, so it means that much more when someone who is out there doing similar stuff gives me a like. You can add one more follower to the funny, witty, spot-on insights of your blog, keep it up.

Spam-liking? That’s a new one. Like you, I don’t like anything that I don’t legitimately read or like. This was an excellent post. I read a few others, but I hardly comment. I’m trying to get better at it.

I believe many of us are quite ill with winter this season. As the cliche goes, misery loves company, right? (You should read the one I wrote the other day – in which I broke up with Snow.)
I look forward to exploring your blog as well!

I love this post. When I first started blogging I just wrote but not I am also addicted to people stories. I have become connected to people on WordPress and I honestly consider them friends. I love when I accidentally stumble onto someones site and I just cannot stop reading post after post after post. I had no idea. I would enjoy every dimension of blogging so much.

I like your writing style! it’s so refreshingly honest. And I can relate to being hooked in by wordpress. I too was told I had to start blogging. I started haltingly and begrudgingly. But pretty soon I was amazed at what I found in blogland and I was hooked. And poetry started coming out of me, which is something I hadn’t done in a while. I’m enjoying this adventure! I read Gone with the Wind several times, so I will be reading your civil war blogposts with interest. I love history too. I wish you much luck in getting published. From what I hear it’s not easy, but don’t give up.

You raise an interesting point, and I have to admit that I don’t spend a lot of time reading other people’s blogs — then I complain that they don’t read mine! Go figure! But I wonder about the publishing industry expectation that you have to have one. I wonder how important that really is. But even more, I wonder why that would be the case. Publishers are expecting us writers to do our own branding and promotion, with some coming right out and asking potential clients, “What’s your marketing plan?” Um, isn’t that the sort of thing they’re supposed to do to deserve that big chunk of my royalties they’ll be getting?

The blogosphere is like entering a nonviolent battlefield-bodies all over the place and it just keeps growing. As your maneuvering about you’ve got to be wary of injured calvary horses falling on you ’cause they would really slow you down. There are too many places to run and hide. This blogging thing is a war zone loaded with peaceful protesters. Signs are everywhere and I’m just gettin’ started.
AnnMarie

I promise my Like wasn’t spam! I never Like without reading.
I share some of your ambivalence about blogging. I do enjoy doing it, and I enjoy a lot of what other people write too – in fact I’ve come across some really good blogs that are well worth following. (I must admit I possibly follow too many, but that’s fine provided they don’t all post every day because then my in-box will explode.) But time is an issue. I want to keep reading, and of course it would be kind of nice to keep writing too, as well as everything else. Blogging is yet another thing to keep juggling. Is it worth it? I think so …

I was again accused of liking without reading… although this time I was called a “serial liker.” I tend to search a tag and then read everything in it, liking them even before I’m finished with them. For me, liking a post does not always mean I like the CONTENT as much as I appreciate the effort or the sentiment. Sometimes I’ll like ’em just to mark them as read. If that makes me a serial liker… then I’ll admit my guilt.

I enjoy your candor and humor in this post. I am a former history teacher; therefore, your Civil War writing is where I will sacrifice my hours to the passion of putting the pieces of history together forming a fuller picture of our past.